They Met in High School
by MusicNeverStops474
Summary: A story about Tobey's parents and how they met in high school. Claire's popular, a great singer, and surrounded by fans; Theo's kind of a loner, made fun of, and likes to draw. Will this work out?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: So, I've become really interested in Tobey's mom, Claire McCallister, and her husband and how they met and what happened to him. In my other stories I use the story that Tobey's dad left them but then I decided to try something different. So, this story is about how Claire and Theodore met at high school. It's just a little story that I wanted to try out and if I get some positive reviews and I have more ideas I'll keep writing.**

**Hope you like! Note that there will be no Bob, Becky, WordGirl, Tobey or any other kids from the show since this is back when Claire and Theo were teenagers. I might include Mr. and Mrs. Botsford though.**

**And I don't own anything, which is no surprise.**

Claire's POV

Another dreary, ordinary day of high school; sometimes it felt like life was a merry-go-round and I was just one of the horses. Always seeing the same scenery, the same horse in front, and the same horse behind. It's like we're robots or something, programmed to do the exact things day in and day out. Wake up, eat breakfast, school, homework, dinner, bed.

Okay, perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration, but some days it felt like that.

Most people would argue that as the most popular girl in the 9th grade, I probably have the best social life a freshman can possibly have. And I guess, in a way, they're right. I do have lots of friends (or fans, depending on the way you look at them) who are always surrounding me. I have long, wavy blond hair and deep blue eyes; I'm tall and curvy and have a pretty good voice. Well, my friends would object to that and tell me I have the best singing voice at our school but I prefer to be more modest than that.

So, in my school I'm known as Claire Page, the pretty, bubbly, and popular freshman.

Unknown to my "popular" friends, I also have a love for science, specifically engineering. A lot of my spare periods, when I tell them I'm working on a new song, are spent sneaking up to Mme Julie's science lab and spending my 50 minutes of freedom inventing to my hearts content with my science buddies. My friends there never tell my little "pose" because they know just as well as I do that they would never understand my love for creating.

I had just come from one such "science sessions" and was twirling my bright purple combination lock to retrieve my binders for English class. 11, 47, 25….and open! The locker squeaked slightly and I gazed fondly at my brightly decorated locker while grabbing my things for English. On the door of the locker were all my pictures of my family, friends, and my adorable tabby cat who I called Tiger.

As I shut my locker and snapped the lock back on, I heard the familiar tap, tap of my friend's high heels who I saw heading down the hall to meet me. These six girls were probably the giggliest, most gossipy, and energetic bunch of girls you have ever met. Morgan, Emma, Ashley, Megan, Christine, and Lisa all looked different but all shared one thing in common, their love of clothes, boys, and gossip. They had this thing for all dressing in the same colours (today was bright pink and purple) and as they came to a halt in front of me, Morgan asked, exasperated, "Seriously Claire?" She gestured to my outfit, "Dark jeans and a green ruffle top? Why don't you match like us; matching signifies-"

I cut her off and continued, "-a bond of unity, I know, I know, I know," she looked at me expectantly, "Oh, come on Morgan, I've already told you a billion times before that I like being myself and having my own style."

And with that, I began leading the way down the hall. As my friends chattered happily behind me, I admired the quiet beauty of our high school. Unlike other high schools I'd seen, ours was clean, spacious, and had tasteful painted walls of deep shades of violet, magenta, and green. Our school's mascot was a black panther and our school colours were purple and green which made great cheerleading outfits.

The corridors twisted and turned driving me down the familiar path to Mr. Arthur's classroom. I looked to my right as we passed the main office to wave at Kim and Marsha (the two ladies that worked in there). But as my eyes met the window, another person caught my eye and made me stop walking. A boy, who looked to be around my age, stood in the office with a woman (whom I supposed was his mother) and our principal. I had never seen him before and his back faced my so I could only see that he had radiant blond hair like me. But then he turned and our eyes met, his dark brown to my bright blue ones. He held my gaze but when Lisa collided with me I snapped by head back straight and continued walking once more.

"Hey!" Emma yelled, jogging up beside me, "What was that all about?"

"Nothing," I replied, then, hoping to divert their attention, "Hey, did you guys hear about what Jonah Parker did last week?"

Well, that totally worked, my friends all squealed and began chattering like a bunch of monkeys, gossip giving them renewed energy. I rolled my eyes, my friends had the attention span of a grain of salt sometimes.

0o0o0o0

"Class, class, settle down please," called out Mr. Arthur, attempting to squash the chatter in the bright, open classroom.

Slowly, our class's attention turned to Mr. Arthur at the front of the room, besides Mme Julie, Mr. Arthur was probably my favourite teacher at our school. People called him prehistoric but I liked the way he resembled an old fashioned professor with his British accent and brown suits. When I had a spare moment after class I would usually start chatting with him about a story idea, something I heard on the news, or just have a friendly conversation.

At the moment he had began writing our topic for today when there was a sudden knock at the door. Mr. Arthur jogged over and opened the door and stood there for a moment, talking with the principal while the rest of us whispered to each other. Then, after a minute or so had passed, our teacher re-entered the room followed closely by the boy I had seen in the office this morning. His eyes met mine and for some reason (I'm not sure what) I felt a small blush creep onto my face.

He followed Mr. Arthur up to the front of the room where he stopped and addressed the class, "Okay, class; it looks like we've got a new student for the rest of the year. Please welcome your newest classmate, Theodore McCallister II."

We all clapped politely while Mr. Arthur kept talking, "So, Theodore there's an empty seat right by Claire there, go and sit right down."

He mumbled a quiet, "Thank you, sir," before sitting down at the desk next to mine. Wrenching my eyes away from this new boy, I focused my attention back on Mr. Arthur as he wrote our assignment for the week on the board.

"As you all know, for part of this semester we will be focusing on writing fiction narratives and how to make them worth reading. This week we shall be working on creating complex and intriguing characters. With your partners, you will attempt to create a character and write an essay on their physical appearance, their personality, and their background. You will also draw a portrait of your character, and I know you are not all artists but give it your best shot. I'm looking for your best work here, lots of descriptive vocabulary and really try to make your character interesting. At the end of the week, you and your partner will present your character to the class then had in to me for grading," Mr. Arthur explained and motioned for us to start working.

I had been without a partner all year because of the empty seat to my right but now, as I glanced nervously at the boy beside me, I supposed I'd be working with this new Theodore McCallister II.

"Well," I said nervously, "I guess we'd better get started. Oh, and I'm Claire, as you probably already know."

He gave me a small smile, "And I'm Theodore as you already know, but call me Theo. Everyone does," he glanced at the board again, then asked, "So, what kind of character should we make? Boy or girl?"

"I don't really know, when I write I usually make girls so maybe it's be fun to try doing a guy."

"Alright then, we'll do a boy. How old should he be?" Theo asked, already starting to write down information in his elegant cursive penmanship.

We continued discussing and deciding our character's features and soon had the physical appearance of our made-up character, Raymond Austin Blackburn. It turned out Theodore was fantastic realistic artist and I watched in awe as he quickly sketched out what Ray might look like. It was exactly as I imagined him! When I complimented Theo though he just blushed and looked down, I suppose he didn't get many kind remarks. I'd have to remember to give him some often.

The bell rang when we were in the middle of starting his background story, we exchanged email addresses and he promised to send me a draft of the portrait when he finished.

"Okay, see you later Theo," I said as I gathered my things to leave. I noticed though when he headed to the door, he looked kind of nervous and confused. I did a mental face palm, of course he looked confused, it was his first day here! He didn't know where to go!

Heading over, I poked his shoulder, "Want me to show you around?"

He looked relieved and replied, "Yes please, I didn't really know which way to go. My locker number's 255."

"Oh, that's just down this hall, follow me…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:**** Here's Vhapter 2, sorry it took so long to update, I'll hope to have the next chapter up soemtime next week but school starts on Tuesday so I'm going to be a bit busy. But it doesn't really matter, I write during all my classes ayways! :) Enjoy and review please! If you have suggestions or ideas, I'd be glad to hear them!**

Theo's POV

Well, I had doubted that this morning would turn out even okay but it had been great which was a surprise because every time I had switched to a new high school things just seemed to get worse for me. At my first, things had been okay, I'd even had some friends who I hung out with during spares. But when my Mom's work switched her location again, I'd been wrenched out of my cheerful high school and thrown into a frightening school where most of the kids were either on drugs or alcoholics. I'd focused on my drawing and music to distract myself from the terrors happening around me, kids my age committing suicide, killing others, harming themselves; it had been too much to handle.

That time, Mom had asked for a transfer after she saw the effects those kids had on me. Rushing to the arms of my mother after a horrific nightmare was not a normal thing for us and it had got Mom worried.

School after school I'd gone to, all with kids who never bothered to even try to be friendly and I'd grown used to my reputation as a loner. No big deal to me, I preferred drawing over conversation anyways, especially when that conversation was with kids who couldn't even form proper sentences. People using "like" and "ya know" didn't exactly strike me as intellectually stimulating conversationalists which was what I was craving for; someone my age who actually had a brain in their head.

But today had been actually really refreshing. The whole routine had seemed all too familiar at first; talk to the principal, be escorted to class, have an awkward welcome, and sit down next to someone who'd moan and groan about having to sit next to the new guy. But while I had been in the office I'd gotten a glimpse of the prettiest girl I'd ever laid eyes on. Her golden hair waved to the middle of her back and shone from the light pouring in from the stained glass windows; and when she had turned my eyes had met hers. She had the most brilliant blue eyes I'd ever seen and I had blushed simply from the eye contact. She looked away however when a girl with cropped brown her hair (her friend I suppose) had ran up to her.

I couldn't get her face out of my mind as Mrs. Dillard (the principal) led me down the twisting school halls; I barely heard her little speech about how I would adore it here and all. She brought me to my first class, English, with a man named Mr. Arthur and I couldn't wait to see if that mysterious girl was in my class. Mr. Arthur led me inside the spacious classroom and made me stand on front of m new classmates while he introduced me. While he was speaking, I let my eyes wander around the class and I was drawn to a girl in the third row. It was that girl from the office!

"So, Theodore there's an empty seat right by Claire there, go and sit right down," I heard my new teacher say and I mumbled a brief, "Thank you sir," then went to sit down next to this beautiful girl named Claire. I desperately hoped she was nice and would be at least friendly to me; and for some reason when I sat down I could have sworn I saw a faint blush light up her perfect face.

When Mr. Arthur had introduced our project, I was ecstatic! We had never done any assignments like this at my other schools and I couldn't wait to get started, of course that could also be due to the fact that my partner for the project was Claire.

Claire was probably the nicest person I'd ever worked with and a great conversationalist too; and she'd even complimented me on my artistic skills which had made me blush like I never had before. And then, when I had no idea which way to go to find my locker, she'd offered to show me around. So now, as I'm following her down the hallways to my locker, I feel like I'm in some sort of dream. I mean, where else would I be following the prettiest girl on the planet that's actually being friendly to me?

"Here we are," said Claire as we rounded the last corner, "Locker number 255 right down there. But it doesn't have a lock on it, you have one, right?"

I shook my head while doing a mental face palm, of course I needed a lock! How could I have forgotten something so obvious? Stupid Theodore, stupid Theodore; my stuff would probably all be gone by the end of the day.

But then I noticed Claire over by what I supposed was her locker and she produced a bright blue lock from inside. Before I could protest, she cut me off and tossed me the lock saying, "The combination's 34,12, 53. Here, take it; it's my back up lock anyways and I can always get another one if I need it."

I took the brightly colored lock from her hesitantly, not wanting to be the victim of a cruel joke, but after seeing no difference in Claire's friendly expression, I dialled the combination and snapped it open. I had expected Claire to walk off after giving me the lock but instead, she leaned against the next locker and asked me, "So, Theo; how do you like it here? I know it's not the best school ever but most kids seem to like it."

Listening to that, I couldn't help but wonder why anyone _wouldn't_ want to be here but I suppose no one had experienced the horrible things I had at other schools. I replied back to her, a grin making it's way on my face, "This school is the best I've ever been to. The teacher's I've seen have all been kind, the décor really is lovely, and-," I blushed before continuing softer, "a beautiful girl had already offered to spend time with me."

A blush crept up her face as well as she quickly looked down then asked quietly, "Beautiful?"

"Of course beautiful, I expect you get called that every day by your dozens of suitors," I replied with an amused expression on my face.

"'Dozens of suitors?' Where are you, the 16th century? And no, I don't get called beautiful every day, in fact, you're probably the first to call me that," she replied sending me a smirk.

As she'd probably expected, that made me totally confused; I mean, she's the prettiest girl on the planet and no one's ever called her beautiful before? Are the boys here blind?

Before I could ask though, she answered for me, "You're the first to call me beautiful, though, I've been called hot more times than I care to count. Beautiful is…refreshing, I suppose, and more sincere. Thanks," she stated, blushing again and ducking her head shyly.

Realizing that she was uncomfortable, I quickly changed the subject, "So, care to show me where the lunch hall is? I do recall you offering to show me around."

"Yeah, just follow me; I think you'll like the cafeteria, it's really big and they have the most beautiful stained glass windows in the school," she told me while leading me down the back staircase.

We continued chatting but as we neared the cafeteria Claire ducked into the girl's washroom and since I didn't really want to enter the dining hall by myself, I simply leaned against the stone wall and waited. Unfortunately for me, a few moments later a group of boys came sauntering down the hall. There was 6 boys and I guessed the leader was the one at the front with dark hair hung over one eye, which I supposed was the cool hairstyle, and his mouth was twisted into a sneer as he looked me over. He glanced once more at me, whispered something to the others, then came over saying cockily, "Well, well, well; you must be the new kid."

I just nodded, not really wanting to give this guy a reason to pick on me although I knew he would. He continued talking loudly, gesturing to the washroom sign, "And what would the new kid be doing outside the girl's washroom, hmm? Oh wait, did someone kick you out of the guy's room? Because I can totally see why they would, I almost thought you were a really ugly girl myself."

His cronies laughed at the stupid joke and I couldn't help but wonder if her really thought that was funny, I mean, I could think up better insults than that! At the same time I was really hoping Claire would get out here soon so we could just keep walking and save me from the misery of having to listen to their stupid taunts.

Thankfully, a few insults later, the washroom door swung open and out stepped a very angry looking Claire who glared at the boy. Surprisingly, he backed up and his entire demeanour changed, "Well, hi Claire! I didn't know you were in there; you having a good day?"

"It was better before you turned up, Alex. Why do you always have to pick on people better than you?" Claire demanded angrily, spitting out his name like something disgusting; I could tell she'd heard everything he'd said and I guessed she'd had to deal with him before.

Alex's face turned as red as a tomato and if I hadn't been so worried about getting beaten up, I'd have probably burst out laughing. He muttered something about getting me later then stalked down the hall closely followed by his thugs for friends. Claire glared after him then began walking with me to the cafeteria once more saying, "Sorry about him, that's Alex, the school bully. He thinks he's so great and is always picking on people who don't deserve it. But no one ever stands up to him because of those two thugs he calls friends and he's just so-" she had said this in a blur but after seeing my amused expression she stopped, "Sorry, he just get's on my nerves so much sometimes! Anyways, I'm sorry he was picking on you, if he does it again you can always call on me and I'll come and beat the stuffing out of him. I've always dreamed of doing that."

She had this dreamy expression on her face, I guessed she was thinking about herself punching the light out of Alex, what a sight to see that would be!


End file.
